Headin' out to Austin

Tomorrow morning we're heading out to Austin for my childhood friend Stewart's wedding. We're renting a cabin with 5 other couples, all my bestest childhood (teenagerhood?) friends from Wheeling, West Virginia. Among them will be Amy and Carrie, shown here with a mop-topped me (on the right):


Aren't we cool with our Disc cameras and Jam shorts? We grew up to be bridesmaids in each other's weddings. Now we're all moms. Stewart was like a younger brother to us and now we're going to watch him get married. His soon-to-be-wife Angie fits right in with our old-skool crowd. By "fits right in" I mean she likes to party too. Yee-Haw! This should be fun.

Lazy Sunday afternoon

I had the urge to check out a yard sale this morning in Silverlake that I saw posted on craigslist - Vintage clothing! Fabric! Sewing supplies! Cool stuff! - but I resisted. I have to keep telling myself that I need to use up what I have before I accumulate any more. I did, however, use that needlepoint owl I got the other day. Last night I turned it into this:

I have to turn it around to face the wall though because those eyes won't stop following me. It's like the 70s all over again with all these owls in my sewing room.

I didn’t even leave the house today. This afternoon Sage and I picked loquats off the massive loquat tree in our backyard:


When we first moved here we didn't know what they were. Avocados? (they were green at first). Pears? I dissected one and looked it up on the internet and discovered that they were called loquats and they were edible. And goooood! They taste like the cross between a kiwi and a pear. Trouble is, they don't last more than an hour after you pick them. So what's a family to do? Why make loquat daiquiris of course! (Sage's was sans rum).

Yeah, they’re sitting in the back of Erik’s truck. What can I say? You can put the West Virginians in California, but you can’t take the West Virginia out of Californians. Er, something.

Wanna see our kitchen?

Our poor breakfast nook has suddenly become a painting studio. At least Erik moved out of the computer room and I’m no longer being overtaken by fumes. He has a show coming up and has been painting up a storm for it. I love the guy, but he sure does make some crazy/obnoxious/vulgar-but-hilarious art. He’s particularly fond of butts and boobies.

Aren't we all?

A new home for my thoughts

I've been wanting to jump on the blog ship for a while now and after a few false starts, I think this will be the one that starts it all. Unless of course I delete it and start over again. I had a blog of sorts on my kokoleo web site, but it was a little too kokoleo-centric for me. I want to be able to talk about other things - my family, friends, life in L.A., random thoughts, raves, rants and whatnot. So here, in words and pictures, is my patchwork world. Welcome!

. . . uh, now what? How about some pictures? People often ask me where I buy my fabric for kokoleo. The answer is I just pick stuff up here and there. The result is a that my sewing room is bursting at the seams with an odd assortment of patterns and textures. But eventually these things end up being the perfect thing I need to make a purse, shirt, monster etc. I'm sure there are worse addictions a girl could have.

Yesterday I got this stuff at the Free Clinic charitable Thrift Store on Sunset Blvd:


That sparkly thing is a vintage chain mail halter top. I don't really have anywhere to wear it (I might get a few strange looks if I wore it to pick up Sage at preschool) but I just love the feel of it and the way it makes me feel like a Hollywood starlet when I put it on. Also in the picture are some vintage fabric cutouts (which I appliqued onto baby shirts last night) and some wacky 80s stationary. I'm on a stationary kick lately.

This morning I dragged Sage from yard sale to yard sale all over Los Feliz, Hollywood and Atwater village. I spent a total of $12 and got this:


Lots of great fabric (including the popular sushi print), some scarves, vintage patterns and another bobbin holder. I also got the following three items for a grand total of 50 cents at one house:


Yet another needlepoint owl. They're haunting me. Those eyes! It's as if he was hooting, "Who whoo whooo wants to make me into a purse?" I couldn't resist. I also scored a Mary and Jesus embroidered piece and some vintage Snoopy stationary.

And since Sage was such a trooper, he got this:


A box full of "big boy" Legos which will no doubt be all over the house soon with their little sharp corners puncturing my feet. They were pretty cool though. We spent a long time digging through the box finding little Lego knights and dragons and horses and race car drivers and sunbathers and skeletons and Star Wars Stormtroopers and sharks and octopi and ghosts and more - the same stuff we saw at the big Lego store, only these were a couple hundred dollars less.

So that's my accumulation for the week. Hopefully a lot of these things will find life anew in the form of purses, skirts, monsters, etc. We'll see!